1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sporting goods products, and more particularly to an accessory useful by hunters and anglers for retaining and transporting taken game.
2. Description of the Prior Art
While no specific prior art relating to the present invention is presently known to the inventor, hunters, particularly of larger animals such as deer and the like, are universally faced with the problem of transporting their prey, usually taken in a relatively remote location, to a location whereat mechanical transportation is available, or whereat the taken animal may be dressed out. Heretofore, such hunters have relied upon relatively simple means for transporting their prey. The simplest of such approaches is for the hunter to physically lift the prey onto their shoulders into a carrying position. However, such a practice may be significantly hazardous, since other hunters may identify the carried carcass as a viable target, placing the carrying hunter in jeopardy of being shot.
Another commonly used approach is to secure a length of rope or cable to appropriate portions of the anatomy of the dead animal, and to then use the rope to pull the dead animal along the terrain surface. The general flexibility of rope, however, gives rise to a measure of difficulty in making a continuous pulling effort, particularly over terrain having significant natural obstacles such as growth, deadfalls, outcroppings, and the like. When such an obstacle is encountered, the transporting hunter usually finds it necessary to pause in the pulling effort, approach the carcass, and physically lift the carcass, or a major portion thereof, over or around the obstacle before resuming the pulling effort.
It is also know that devices principally devised for use in other fields of endeavor have been modified or otherwise adapted for use as game drag implements. Meathooks, commonly used in the meat processing industry, provide a pointed hook that can be forced into engagement with an appropriate portion of the anatomy of the dead game. Such meathooks are usually provided with a handle, generally in the form of a rigid bar rigidly attached to the hook at right angles with the extent of a shank of the hook portion. Thus, a user may grasp the handle of the meathook and drag the prey along behind him or her. Similarly, some hunters have taken hay bale hooks, generally used for manually lifting hay bales from the ground to a hayrack, for the purpose of dragging dead game. Such hay bale hooks usually have the same general appearance as a meathook, with size of the hook and the length of the shank being the primary differences between the two types of implements. Another similar implement is often used by stevedores or other cargo handlers for moving and loading boxes and crates.
Less frequently, some hunters have adapted an implement similar to the large ice tongs once commonly used for handling large blocks of ice. Such ice tongs generally have a pair of opposed points, respectively on individual shanks that are provided with handles at their obverse ends, the shanks are pivoted, in a substantially scissors-like manner near the midpoints of their respective extents. When used as a game drag, such a device holds the game between the two points.
Such devices, as are heretofore commonly adapted for use as a game drag, each provide some measure of rigidity to enable the user to at least partially lift the attached portion of the dead animal over terrain obstacles with minimal pause in the pulling effort. However, each such device suffers from considerable bulk, which results in significant difficulty in carrying the device prior to the time it is needed for use. Additionally, the rigidity of construction of such devices often places the points of a carried device in positions wherein significant potential risk arises that the points may engage with the carrying user to cause injury to the user.